Internationalisation of the Côte d’Ivoire crisis: What Lessons for Africa?

Abstract

Given different election results by the electoral commission and the constitutional council, what began as a disagreement over whether Gbagbo or Ouattara won the hotly contested run-off Côte d’Ivoire presidential elections in November 2010 degenerated into a complex political problem in which the UN, the international community, ECOWAS and the AU also became embroiled. The contested outcome of the election was expected but the degree and magnitude of the involvement of the international community in the conflict was perhaps not. This article examines the crisis, and analyses the position of international actors vis-à-vis the belligerents, positing that the difficult process of rebuilding state institutions and reconciliation has begun, and that the crisis unearthed some important lessons for Africa’s political elites.